One bye week by-product is the opportunity for players who may have been on the edge of moving into a greater role within their position groups to showcase their development. Without a Saturday game to prepare for, coaches can give reps to young players who have begun to show promise when they have received playing time and in practice.
 
 
Kirby Smart pointed to several youngsters who have impressed so far this season and are being given the opportunity to increase their snap count.
 
 
“…I thought in the game the other day Malik Herring (10), Robert Beal, Jr. (33) and Jordan Davis (99) all three played more snaps than they have been playing, but Jordan and Beal especially played a lot more than they have been playing. Those guys have been on the scout team a ton, so we use them as examples to say, ‘this is your opportunity to leapfrog a guy…We are getting three groups of reps, we’re getting a lot of reps out there this week. We can say ‘ ok, how far has Chris Smith come, how far has Deangelo Gibbs come, how far has Justin Shaffer come?’ We are getting a lot of guys reps to get better.
 
 
That’s how you improve your team, that’s how you improve your program from the bottom up, you get tons of reps and you get to work. We did that today.”